Lets hope that Detroit got their winning ways back from Santa over the short holiday break. The Wings dropped the last two games of their west coast road trip after barely beating the lowly Oilers when they decided to play actual hockey in the third period.

Puck drop at 8 pm on FSD

Click the jump for more.

If you thought that stretch of games was rough, you are really going to be gnawing at your fingernailsover the next ten games, six of them against central division opponents, 3 of those being the Blackhawks, and two against the Blues which both come on the 2nd night of back-to-backs.

To bring that all into perspective, Detroit sits in 6th place in the West, 3rd in the Central. One point behind St. Louis and five behind Chicago with a game in hand. The Wings need to strap in and play playoff hockey to get through this stretch.

Even though the loss to Calgary wans’t all his fault, I think that Ty Conklins time in Detroit is done, the team has lost all confidence playing in front of him, and it shows in their play, they are making decisions based on fear and not sticking to their game.

NASHVILLE NOTES• Nashville is 6-1-2 against the Central Division this season, including a 3-0-1 mark on home ice.• According to Stats Inc., Nashville’s 10 consecutive one-goal games from Nov. 28-Dec. 17 were just two games short of the NHLrecord. The Predators went 7-3-0 in those contests.• The last eight Predator victories have been by a one-goal margin.• The Predators are 15-2-2 when scoring more than two goals.• Ryan Suter has 16 points (2g-14a) in his last 20 games.• Martin Erat has six points (3g-3a) in five games. He has 23 points (8g-15a) in 26 games since returning from injury on Oct. 29.Nashville is now 6-0-0 when Erat scores.• David Legwand has seven points (4g-3a) in 10 games.• Colin Wilson has 10 points (3g-7a) in his last 11 games.• Pekka Rinne is now 16-9-4 with a 2.65 goals-against average, .918 save percentage and three shutouts in 2011-12. He leads allNHL goaltenders in shots faced (929), saves (853) and appearances (31).• Predators have never lost in regulation when Nick Spaling scores a goal. They were 6-0-0 last season, 1-0 during last year’splayoffs and are 4-0-1 this season.• In their 18 victories this season (17 non-shootout wins), the Predators have received game-winning goals from 13 different players.Colin Wilson (3), Martin Erat (2) and Nick Spaling (2) are the only players with multiple game-winning goals.

DETROIT RED WINGS TEAM NOTES• DET is 44-22-4-7 all-time vs NSH• DET is 18-16-2-2 all-time at NSH• DET leads the NHL in fewest PIM/Game (8.5)• DET is 2nd in the NHL in both SOG/Game (33.8) and SOG Against/Game (27.1)• DET is 5th in the NHL in both Goals/Game (3.24) and GA/Game (2.29)• DET is 3-1-0 on Boxing Day since the NHL Lockout (15-14-10-0 overall)• DET is 65-3-4 the last 72 times they’ve scored 4+ goals in a game

DETROIT RED WINGS PLAYER NOTES• J. Howard leads the NHL in wins (20) and ranks 5th in GAA (1.99), 12th in SV% (.925) and is T-4th in SO (3)• J. Howard is currently on pace to tie M. Brodeur’s NHL record for victories in a season (48)• P. Datsyuk is T-6th in the NHL in assists (25), T-9th in road points (18), 8th in face-off wins (346) and 2nd in takeaways (48)• I. White is T-1st in the NHL in plus/minus by a defenseman (+22)• N. Kronwall is T-5th in the NHL in blocked shots (85)• N. Lidstrom has skated in 197 consecutive regular season games (longest active streak on DET)• N. Lidstrom’s next point will give him sole possession of 50th place in NHL history (currently tied with B. Federko, 1130)• N. Lidstrom is 3 assists behind P. Esposito for 21st place in NHL history (873)

Come on Mrs. Underwood! You know you want to be a Wings fan, no one likes boring Nashville hockey.